Archive for the ‘Great Basin’ Tag

The series on rural America continues. The goal is to give you ideas for how to make your trips into the various regions of this huge country about more than ticking off scenic wonders and tourist hot spots. Although America’s rich rural character has been in many areas replaced by suburban sprawl, it remains in more places than you might expect.

This and one or two succeeding posts begins a look at select road trips in the amazing region of the U.S. called the desert southwest (DSW). Check out the last post for an introduction to the DSW. Each time I travel here I find new detours and variations. Some lead to interesting but relatively unknown scenic splendors. But the best thing about these routes is they all reveal rural charms that are easy to miss if you stick to the main highways. So let’s dive right in, starting in the west and moving east.

Death Valley to Zion

Of course any trip through the Desert SW is going to focus at least as much on nature as it does on rural areas. This one is no exception. For the obvious reason of its harshly dry climate, ranching is more important than farming in most areas along this route. Cattle ranching in Nevada and SW Utah takes place largely on public lands. Once in SW Utah you are in an area of the state called Dixie. The town of St. George is large and bustling, but there are plenty of scenic small towns in the area to explore.

Scotty’s Castle is at the center of many of Death Valley’s best stories.

Ghost Towns of Death Valley

Start by traveling (if you fly in, from Los Angeles or Las Vegas) to Death Valley National Park in California. It’s one of my favorite places in the world. Here you can alternate rambles across sand dunes at sunrise and hikes through stunning canyons with a visit to a ghost town or two. They are what remains of the gold mining that took place here in the 1800s and early 1900s.

The best known example is Rhyolite, which is not in the park but very accessible just across the Nevada border. Beatty, the town nearby, will give you a glimpse of small-town life in the Great Basin of Nevada. If you’d visited Rhyolite in the 1990s you would have seen an operating mine, and you will see the remnants of this more modern open-pit gold mine in the Bullfrog Hills above the ghost town.

Feral burros, left over from the days of gold and silver prospecting, roam the Mojave Desert of Death Valley National Park.

A spectacular pair of ghost towns lie on the opposite, western side of Death Valley, in the Panamint Valley. You can drive right to the first, Ballarat. But if you’re in hiking shape I highly recommend heading up nearby Surprise Canyon, parking at the obvious end of the passable part of the dirt road and continuing on foot.

While it is a spectacular area, realize you will be trekking 10 fairly rugged canyon miles roundtrip. But if you bring a water filter you can carry much less weight in water than usual in these parts. You might even see waterfalls along the way depending on recent storms. Be prepared for thick brush in the canyon bottom. Arriving at Panamint City with its scenic brick smokestack, you’ll experience the real deal. It has a true lonely ghost-town feel.

One of the surviving buildings of Ballarat Ghost Town, the snow-capped Panamint Range soaring beyond.

One more cool “ghost town” to visit in the Death Valley area is Gold Point, Nevada. It is actually north of the park, but if you’re up there to visit Scotty’s Castle anyway, it’s not all that much further. I put ghost town in quotations because a half dozen or so souls live there with the ghosts year-round. You can not only see a historic old-west saloon, you can go in and have a beer!

The Great Basin of Southern Nevada.

Rural Southern Nevada

Traveling east across southern Nevada you’ll pass the glitz of Las Vegas. If you stay on the freeway it is a relatively short high-speed cruise along Interstate 15 to St. George, Utah. But consider a short detour north into the rural southern Great Basin. So turn north on U.S. Highway 93 toward the little town of Caliente. Turn south on State Hwy. 317 to make a loop back to Hwy. 93.

Take your time and you’re sure to see a sparsely populated part of Nevada that will make you forget all about the neon phenomenon of Las Vegas. It’s what the Great Basin is all about, what nobody speeding along I-15 could imagine. You can extend your detour north to Cathedral Gorge State Park, an area of badlands with cool little slot canyons. Some of the valleys where cattle roam are surprisingly green and grassy. Others are arid, treeless expanses, with the Great Basin’s characteristic long ranges shimmering in the distance.

On a detour through rural southern Nevada, some areas don’t look very desert-like.

And others do: badlands of Cathedral Gorge, NV.

Dixie in Utah

Not long after crossing out of Nevada you arrive in bustling St. George, southern Utah’s largest town. St. George is still dominated by its founders the Mormons, but nowadays it’s perhaps best known as a retirement haven. For outsiders, the town is most notable as gateway to southern Utah’s world-famous scenic wonders. Of course you can’t miss Zion National Park once you’re this close. But a destination much nearer to town is the compact but stunning Snow Canyon State Park. In this part of America it’s impossible to miss nature. But remember this series is about where the people of rural America live.

Small-scale farming & ranching survives in small towns along the Virgin River bottom: Rockdale, Utah.

There are several towns surrounding St. George that retain the rural character of Dixie. A drive north to Pine Valley features lovely scenery and the rural charm of this part of Utah. And even in towns just off Interstate 15, places like Leeds and Toquerville, rural character remains. If you get off at Leeds, wander over to the west side of the freeway and up the hill to historic Silver Reef, an old mining town. Also nearby is spectacular Red Cliffs Recreation Area. A very worthwhile canyon hike with a pretty little campground at the trailhead. If you drive to Toquerville, turn north on Spring Rd. to visit Toquerville Falls.

On the way to Zion most visitors race in eager anticipation past the scenic little towns of Virgin and Rockdale. The roadside scenery between Rockdale and Springdale is lovely, especially in autumn (image below). But once in Springdale you’ve entered the chaos of a uniquely American phenomenon: the National Park gateway town.

Valley of the Virgin River near Zion National Park, Utah.

Polygamy & Canyon Hiking

You can see where some of the Mormon Church’s most devout families live if you drive south of Hurricane (on the way to Zion) on Hwy. 59 to Colorado City on the Arizona border. Keep going and this is an excellent way to travel to the north rim of the Grand Canyon or to Kanab, Utah. Drive around the small town, which is called Hilldale on the Utah side, and you’ll see women in very traditional dress. Polygamy is still widely practiced in these parts. And as Forest Gump said, “that’s all I’m going to say about that.”

If you want to stretch your legs while you’re in the Hilldale/Colo. City area, there is a great canyon hike nearby. Are you detecting a pattern? A nice canyon hike is never far away when you’re traveling in these parts. Drive north of town to the Water Canyon Trailhead. You can get directions on Google Maps, but don’t think that means this is a popular place. It’s more of a local’s hike. The road becomes quite sandy and rutted, but you should be able to make it in a sedan if you go slow.

Water Canyon lies south of Zion Park, Utah.

After parking continue hiking up-canyon to pretty narrows and a small falls, where as the name suggests water usually flows (image above). A short scramble up the left side of the stream takes you past the apparent blockage and on up the canyon. The trail eventually ascends steeply out of the canyon and up onto the mesa above. Looking north you can see the southernmost temples of Zion. Extending the hike this far is for lovers of longer, more rugged hikes.

Thanks for reading this rather long post! This road-trip is definitely one I highly recommend. Plan about two weeks to do it. I’ve met people who have raced through in one week, and that’s including Bryce Canyon! I have trouble getting out of Death Valley in less than a week. Have a great weekend and happy shooting everyone!

The desert mountains along Death Valley’s eastern Nevada boundary light up at sunset.

After several weeks of relatively involved Foto Talks, I’m in the mood for short and sweet this week. As my annual pass to National Parks (NPs) expires, I’m trying to decide when (or even if) I should buy another one. I probably will. But it’s made me consider all that I love (and all that I don’t) about America’s National Parks. I’d love to hear what you think of my likes or dislikes. Or if you have any of your own you’d like to add. So fire away in the comments!

On the Ute Trail, Trail Ridge, Rocky Mtn. NP, Colorado, in the very early morning when all my fellow hikers are behind me, to be met on my return hike.

LIKE

National Parks are photo-worthy. Of course it’s easy to like the scenery and wildlife of the parks. It’s mostly why they were protected in the first place. Nearly all of the parks are photogenic.

DISLIKE

NPs are crowded. All that beauty and wildlife draws a lot of visitors. Nearly all of the parks have seen steady increases over the past few decades. And with recent drops in the price of gas, people are on the road, flocking to the parks. Visitation is exploding. Of course a few parks have always been busy: Yosemite, Great Smokies, Grand Canyon.

But two fairly recent trends are bothersome, at least for those of us with some history in the parks. One is the increase in off-season visitation. Another is exploding visitation in parks like Zion and Rocky Mountain (which has recently leapfrogged both Yosemite and Yellowstone). Even small, out-of-the-way parks like Great Basin (which I recently visited) can get busy in summertime.

Colorful rocks and the lichen that like them high up in Rocky Mtn. NP, Colorado.

LIKE

NPs are diverse. Most parks are all about mountains, forests and streams. Others are more famous for their wildlife. But many others feature history or pre-history. The newest unit, Stonewall National Monument in New York, even celebrates LGBT (gay) rights.

DISLIKE

NPs attract very non-diverse visitors. I don’t know how much of a dislike this is because I think it’s slowly changing. But parks are lily white. Black Americans in particular are few and far between, especially in the big nature-dominated parks of the west. Latinos are beginning to visit in greater numbers, probably because they have families to entertain. But they’re also under-represented.

A mated pair of pronghorn (which are not true antelope) in Wyoming well outside of any NP.

So-called cave shields in Lehman Caves, Great Basin NP, Nevada.

LIKE

NPs are managed for people. Most parks go out of their way to make parks accessible to everyone. And this includes the disabled. It’s actually in their charter. They were created with a dual purpose in mind, which if you think about it is a pretty difficult pair of opposing values to simultaneously succeed at.

But they do a good job. There are accessible trails and fishing platforms at Yellowstone and other parks, for example. Roads give access to the best attractions, and lodging plus camping allow staying inside the park (as long as you make reservations early enough).

DISLIKE

NPs attract all sorts of people. Here’s a sad fact: many people bring way too much with them when they go on vacation, yet they routinely leave common sense at home. People arrive ready to have a good time, and that’s fine. But for so many, a good time means getting loud and raucous. You won’t see the same people in a NP that you see at a trailhead for a remote wilderness area, getting ready to hike in for a week of self-sufficient existence. That doesn’t mean you won’t find these hikers in NPs (I for one, haha!). It’s just a numbers thing.

In nature, around wildlife especially, being the typical noisy human being is simply not appropriate. It ruins the atmosphere and impacts all sorts of creatures, including other humans. But sadly it’s all too typical. Many young people don’t learn how to have a different sort of good time until well into adulthood. It’s one of the things I am thankful for. I learned early on.

Next time we will continue with some general advice on shooting in national parks. Happy weekend everybody!

Dusk falls at Bluebird Lake in the alpine terrain of a less-traveled area of Rocky Mtn. NP, Colo.

The Trout Creek Mountains in southeastern Oregon bask in last rays as the desert prepares for night.

When I need some wide-open space, I come to this corner of Oregon that we call the state’s “outback”. I drove through on my way to the Rockies recently and revisited a few old haunts. But this was the first time I had actually camped on the playa of the Alvord Desert. While this region is indeed technically a desert (averaging 7 inches/yr. precipitation), I’m not sure why they chose to call this particular place the Alvord Desert.

The Alvord part is predictable, named after a general from the East, from the Civil War no less. But the desert part is curious. The whole region is classified as a cold semi-arid desert. It’s dry and it’s high (4000 feet/1220 meters). But the area named the Alvord Desert is actually a large playa, a dry lake bed. So why not call it the Alvord Playa?

Venus sets & the stars come out as night comes to the Alvord Desert in SE Oregon.

Early morning reveals the Pueblo Mountains to have been dusted by snow overnight.

Climate & Geology

The region’s aridity is caused by the rain shadow of the Cascades and other mountain ranges. The Alvord itself is in the very dramatic rain shadow of Steen’s Mountain, which rises directly west. (The Steen’s is also a very spectacular destination in it’s own right.) The Alvord is a spectacular example of a playa, so dry and flat in summer and fall that you can easily drive and land a plane on it. In fact, it’s been used to set land speed records, like the Bonneville Salt Flats down in Utah.

The salty playas of this region of North America form because erosion from surrounding mountains dumps fine sediment into the bottom of the basin and the shallow water that collects there cannot run out. (This isn’t called the Great Basin for nothing.) The water evaporates, leaving behind salt flats and quickly drying muds.

The playa of the Alvord Desert in Oregon attracts a group of “wind-riders”.

Even a light wind can propel these guys at quick speeds across the Alvord. I can’t imagine the speeds in heavy wind!

The Alvord lies near the northern extent of the the Basin and Range province, a term geologists prefer over Great Basin. Extending down through Nevada and eastern California, and over into western Utah, it is a series of linear mountain ranges and adjacent basins formed by block faulting. Huge sections of the earth’s crust rise up while on the other side of the fault the adjacent basins drop down. It happens this way because the crust just below is being stretched and rifted apart, much like the Great Rift Valley in Africa. Since this shallower part of the crust is brittle, faults form. Earthquakes along these faults still happen, so it is an ongoing process.

Fall-flowering shrubs dot the “pediment”, the transition from basin to range, in this case from the Alvord playa to Steen’s Mountain.

Reasons to Visit

I hope you get to visit this region one day. Other than the glorious skies and wide-open spaces, it has a lot to offer. It is a fantastic place for bird-watching in springtime (March/April). Just northwest of the Alvord are huge & temporary, shallow lakes, which attract large flocks of migrating birds. The area around Steen’s Mountain is home to Kiger mustangs, wild horses that are known far and wide for their spirit and strength. You’ll probably hear coyotes every night you camp. And you might see a few buckaroos working cattle from horseback, as has been done here ever since white settlement in the 19th century. The area is dotted with the remnants of old homesteads and ranches.

Hope you have a great week. Thanks for reading!

View out onto the Alvord Desert at dusk, where small pools and channels of water from an early fall storm try to make their way out onto the playa.

The Trout Creek Mountains lie just south of the Alvord Desert near Oregon’s border with Nevada.

A photo & travel blog with a difference: Instead of strict focus on photo how-to, gear and the like, I'll pass on knowledge about the places and cultures photographed. I believe the more deeply you come to know a place, the better your pictures will be.

My past careers as science teacher and geologist mean that I can't help but teach about the natural history of photogenic places around the world. But photography is not forgotten. You'll also see practical tips about where and how to photograph the destinations. And once a week, Friday Foto Talk gives photography tips and how-to on a selected topic, for novices on up to expert.

What you won't find here is endless discussion about me braving dangerous weather, terrain or wild animals to get the shot. Nor will there be cheerleading gear talk or marketing pitches. I promise to leave that to other blogs, of which there are many.

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